I fell for a Bitcoin ponzi scam (a cautionary tale)

It’s embarrassing to admit, but I fell for a Bitcoin ponzi scam about six months ago.

At the time, I was making a lot of money (for me) at my sales jobs. I felt on top of the world and like nothing could touch me.

I made two fatal mistakes.

1: I thought that I would continue to make as much as money as I was making at my job. If you know anything about sales then you probably know why this is dumb.

2: I trusted a “friend” and didn’t do my own due diligence. Never ever invest in anything simply on a recommendation without doing your own research.

I have no issue giving the details of the particular scam as I hope this will serve as a warning. I won’t mention the names of anyone involved just to avoid any drama or issues in the future.

The name of this particular venture was called BetRobot. They promised a 6% daily return on investments with compounding.

You can do the math on that yourself but basically, you could make a boatload of money. If it wasn’t a complete ponzi scam, that is.

Here’s what you do: you take your hard-earned real money and turn it into Bitcoin and then send that bitcoin to these anonymous BetRobot people via an app called Telegram. Then they update you whenever you earn “interest” and you’re supposed to be able to withdraw whenever you want.

At first, it works great. Like most ponzis, people can make money at the beginning. Of course, like most pyramid schemes, you get paid extra for recruiting others into the system. Then, it turns sour. After the big players have made a ton of money, suddenly the “robot” stops paying out. Then they raise the minimum withdrawal to something out of reach for small investors. Then they completely disappear with all your hard earned bitcoin.

I don’t know the exact amount that I invested but it was something like $1000. While this was infuriating at the time, it’s even worse now that bitcoin is currently worth about $15,000 (I think it was $1200 – $1500 at the time).

If I wouldn’t have listened to my idiot “friend” (no longer a friend by the way) and just kept the money in bitcoin then I’d have all the money I need right now for my move, my business, and to buy some awesome Christmas gifts for family.

Do I blame this person that roped me in? I did at first but now I take complete responsibility. If I had taken just a few moments to think about what I was doing then I would have realized it was a ponzi scam.

However, I got greedy, and I started to think how nice it would be to make some extra money while doing nothing. I fell for a get rich quick scheme, and I learned a major lesson.

With cryptocurrencies gaining on a daily basis, I predict many more of these scams to surface. In fact, a quick Google search shows that BetRobot still has a website up. How is that legal? Not sure but probably because crypto is a highly unregulated market and no one cares because it’s “not real” money.

If you see any investment opportunity with cryptocurrencies that seems too good to be true or encourages you to recruit other people then I’d advise that you stay far far away. It’s not worth it. Even if you did earn money from it, it would be dirty money any way that was made from scamming people at the bottom.

At this time, I’d suggest getting into crypto in some manner but doing it in a wise fashion. Don’t be like me six months ago, and you’ll be fine. Cryptocurrency is the future, but investors beware. If it sounds too good to be true then it likely is.

Remember: you’re better off giving away all your money than ever being greedy with it.